Man says he lied about killing his 2-month-old son

1of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

2of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

3of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

4of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

5of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

6of 6Arjunkumar Rana, 19, faces a capital murder charge in the death of his son, Alexander Rana, after the medical examiner determined the boy died of asphyxiation by neck compression, according to the San Antonio Police Department. He gave a jail house interview on Monday, May 9, 2016 saying he did not kill his son.Photo: Bob Owen, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

A man who confessed to killing his 2-month-old son sought to retract his confession for the second time Monday, saying he earlier took the blame for his son’s death because he didn’t want to live after losing him.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Arjunkumar Dipak Rana gave investigators with the San Antonio Police Department a detailed account of how he killed the baby in the early morning hours of March 24 at the apartment he shared with the child’s mother in the 3200 block of Northwest Loop 410.

He told investigators that he took the baby into a bathroom, placed his thumbs over the child’s neck and tilted his head forward to cut off his breathing.

The affidavit said Rana described how the baby struggled slightly before he became still, and how he listened to his chest to make sure he wasn’t breathing. Answering a call for an unresponsive baby, emergency responders took Alexander to Methodist Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

But in an interview Monday at the Bexar County Jail, where he is being held on a charge of capital murder-child under 10, Rana said his confession was a lie.

This is not the first time Rana has sought to retract his confession, made about a week after Alexander’s death. When he was arrested last Wednesday, he told reporters that he’d lied. By then, the Bexar County Medical Examiner had ruled the baby’s death a homicide caused by asphyxia by neck compression.

Taking slow, deliberate breaths, Rana said Monday that after his son’s death, he wanted to die. He said he confessed to Alexander’s death because he hoped his statement would result in the death penalty.

“I just wanted the death penalty. I just wanted to die,” Rana said. “I had no reason for living at the time. My son was gone.”

The confession had come six days after his son’s death, according to the affidavit, when police were called to Rana’s apartment for a disturbance.

“Me and my wife got into an argument about financial issues,” he said Monday about that day, adding that he had been laid off and struggling to pay bills. “It was hard on both of us. I told her… I just snapped and I just said I’m just gonna call the police and just tell them I just killed Alex.”

Rana said he hurried to the back bathroom, locked the door, and made the report. He confessed to the dispatcher who answered his 911 call.

He said Monday that between the time he called 911 and the time officers arrived, he had the opportunity to think up a story, “something believable.”

According to the affidavit, he told police that he was angry because he had to go to work the morning of March 24, and his wife would not get up to soothe the baby. He said then that he was confessing because he felt extremely guilty for causing the child’s death.

Fighting back tears Monday, he said he regretted ever saying that he killed Alex.

“All I did by saying that was just insult his life,” he said. “I don’t know what happens next.”

Rana, held in lieu of $500,000 bail, has declined a court-appointed attorney, according to court officials. A capital murder charge carries a possible punishment of life in prison or death.

“He was a joy in my life. I loved him,” Rana said of his son. “I was just the happiest man that there could be. I felt like the king of the jungle and he was my prince. I just hope they realize that I wasn’t mentally there at the time when I said what I said.”

Mark Wilson is a staff writer for the weekly, bilingual publication Conexión. Before joining Conexión in 2013, Mark worked as a writer for the Southside Reporter, a weekly community news publication covering San Antonio's southern sector. Mark is a graduate of Texas State University, where he served as a news reporter and entertainment section editor of the award winning university publication "The University Star."